Overtaking - 2013 debate

[turbof1]

The main point is that the engineering in F1 has matured so we are in the plateau at the top of the S. The FIA try to change the competitive environment to push things back down the S but the teams rapidly optimise to climb back up to the plateau. We can see this when teams bring out new cars every February that have been developed in secret yet they end up with near identical laptimes. They have so many boffins and terrabytes of computer simulation that they converge on near identical performance for a given level of investment.

I disagree that the FIA tries to push the environment back down to get setback on the s curve. It's more more like making the s curve flatter and flatter. Generally the cars are wel developped. Simplifying areas by rules isn't going back down on s curve. You need to change the environment, giving both threats and oppertunities over the previous one. The new engine rules can be described as a change which help development, the new aero rules just as a simplification.

[Richard]

Change the variables, and the sport will evolve.

You need to change the environment, giving both threats and oppertunities over the previous one. The new engine rules can be described as a change which help development.

Temporarily perhaps? Bad designs that fail to adapt and thrive in the new competitive environment will die. Within a season or two (or three if we’re lucky) all teams will find the optimum performance and we’ll not have enough differentiation for on track excitement. To my mind the lack of overtaking is the evidence of engineering perfection, which is why championships are decided by brain, not brawn.

One answer is to enforce sub-optimal aero (and other bits) but then F1 will be the same as Gp2 or Indy. That rather defeats the point of F1.

[turbof1]

I prefer to go for controlled development: each year opening up one small area of the car for development and closing off the previous one, all the while ever increasing safety because cars become steadily faster without a hard reset once and a while.